Shoe retail firm to shut three shops

An historic family-run shoe retail business which dates back 120 years is closing three of its shops with the loss of 12 jobs in Mid Wales and Shropshire.

Gwythers stores in Knighton, Welshpool and Tenbury Wells are expected to close by Christmas due to the economic downturn.

It will leave one store in Bishop's Castle, where it is hoped stock will be increased to compensate for the closures.

Robert Gwyther, who runs the business, said the three shops were no longer economically viable. He said the Knighton store had been due to close last Christmas and would close as soon as a buyer was found.

Mr Gwyther said: "In Tenbury we are concerned about the impact the closure of the Teme Bridge will have. Tenbury was such a special town with all its markets and people coming from across the Midlands but it has lost its buzz lately.

"We were going to close the Knighton shop last Christmas but we have so much stock we decided to keep it going until we find a buyer.

"We plan to close the Tenbury and Welshpool stores by Christmas too, but we are going to expand our Bishop's Castle store by getting more stock in. Over the three shops there will be 12 redundancies.

"Some time ago one of my staff offered to be paid less money and still have a job as they could see business was going down – I did not take them up on it but is something to think about to keep businesses afloat."